Tata Bolt 1.2L Revotron : Official Review

This is a discussion on Tata Bolt 1.2L Revotron : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Originally Posted by zenren
Do we know if the Harman unit is providing 2A for the USB?
Highly unlikely. I'd ...

The 14" rim will have a 4.36% lower circumference. I'd imagine this is acceptable for a stepney. Might not be acceptable if the car has ESP though...

cya
R

Thanks. It doesn't have ESP full. Only has CSP (learnt it recently on the forum ).

Still. I feel its not a very good move. How much will they save by using the same Vista tyre as a spare? A few hundreds perhaps? Better to add that in the car price and give a same diameter wheel. Currently we are looking at a straight 1 inch loss in diameter. The car might stand visibly leaning to one corner.

Or the spare wheel well is not large enough to fit the larger wheel? That would again be a

Quality Control
Tata has come a long way. Significant improvement from the earlier generation of cars from Tata. But they still have a long way to go. Two minor instances of QA issues I have found till now:
The entire hollow body of the car, it seems is filled with an absorbent spongy rubber material for sound absorption and improved shock absorbing. I could see a piece of such material, striking out form the right A pillar with some adhesive on it. I took a blunt knife and had to care fully push that spongy rubbery stuff inside the A pillar. It's perfect now!

The dash board plastics have improved but still needs more premium feel. I do understand it's proportional to the cost of the vehicle, I think a slight increase in cost if required will not hamper the overall sales figures!

Did the PDI of my Dune beige XT today. Then paid the full amount minus the 21k booking amount.
issues seen:
Pinched door window beadingAttachment 1308288
Bonnet panel gap: left vs right. I can see the internals of the engine bay if I look carefully enough. There was another zest out of the 5 zests that I checked that had thisAttachment 1308289

Attachment 1308290
they said they would take care of the window beading, but I think I'm stuck with the panel gap

Honest attempt by Tata to improve their quality and workmanship, need to be highly appreciated. The interiors are testimony for this huge effort and really great to look at. But the exteriors were a disappointment. I don't have any complaint on their quality of painting or material but only on their design.

They need to rethink their whole exterior design and leave behind the Tata signature mark . We have seen this repeated in many models for last decade. if they do it and provide consistent quality, that will be the launch pad for them to re-capture the market.

Another sure shot winner from TATA despite the presence of stalwarts like the Swift and Elite i20. That it will slot below these two in pricing should help its cause greatly. Quality seems to be pretty decent as well and this should add to the feel good factor for the hatchback buyer.

TATA should get the diesel AMT soon and also offer an AMT on the petrol. This will for sure help them garner a significant share of the market and also a significant first mover advantage.

Somehow I feel my vote for 2015 Car of the Year also has been decided. There is tremendous pride in seeing an Indian manufacturer providing such products. More power to TATA

Excellent review. Nice and detailed. The car looks uncanny similar to current gen Vista from the front. Only the rear looks like a new car. Overall externally it looks like more of a facelift rather than a new generation. But TATA have definitely improved the interior a lot. Their next aim should be to upgrade their aftersales.

• Vis a vis the Zest, the Bolt loses parking sensors, LED DRLs and 'guide lights' (the angel-eye parking lights). While we don't miss the parking sensors much on a hatchback, we'd love to have seen the LED DRLs and guide lights on the Bolt. Would give the front great presence.

Owing to its similarity with the Vista, which is popular in rural Indian market too, not sure why they opted for this suspension tune. May be targeting the urban youth?

The Vista offers extremely absorbing and soft ride probably comparable to a Lincoln town car.

But on the flip side, thanks to the soft suspension, on wonderful twisty "driver's roads", it handles as sporty as an oil tanker like the Exxon Valdez without any bow thrusters. Probably the stiffer suspension addresses the fun factor - for the urban youth as you mentioned. Good move I think.

Thanks Aditya for the crisp review, I think you have covered everything and photos are really smashing.

Likes
Fit and Finish looks top notch again, at par with Zest. Tata is making great progress on this front
Cabin feels really premium, I feel Bolt/Zest interiors at par with competition.
Face of the car resembles Zest, which is good.
Harman audio system with Integrated Navigation is a boon.
Split rear seats, which makes it practical when one needed that extra luggage space.
Materials used for the interiors looks good, except the fabric used for seats.

What could have been better
Rear half (B-pillar onwards) of the car looks outdated and reminds me of Vista.
Tail lamp cluster could have been on Zest lines, may be LED. Somehow it does not fit/match to the shape and size of the car.
Small piece of metal just above the tail lamp and below black glossy strip could have been well integrated.
Black vinyl strip has small step on C-pillar could have been avoided(I guess this is done to match the window line and tail lamp line smoothly). I feel it distracts the cool side profile of the car otherwise.
Read hump is not small as Aditya pointed rightly and will be pain to fifth passenger. On the first page Aditya said, "Spacious well-designed interiors. A rare hatchback that can seat 5 adults without a fuss" contradiction?

Read hump is not small as Aditya pointed rightly and will be pain to fifth passenger. On the first page Aditya said, "Spacious well-designed interiors. A rare hatchback that can seat 5 adults without a fuss" contradiction?

Overall great effort by Tata!

Trust me, the hump is not a pain at all for seating. 5 sit with absolute comfort in Vista. No other hatchback comes close.

While the Zest looks like a completely new product, Bolt looks too similar to the Vista.

Bolt has no USP, whereas it faces much tougher competition compared to the Zest.

While I partly agree to you (that Bolt faces much tougher competition compared to the Zest), I think Bolt do have a good USP - the same USP which Vista had but could not capitalize. The USP is in-cabin space.

While Vista did offer acres of space, the other parameters (cabin feel, lack of features etc) were not comparable to the competition, so the USP was lot. In the case of Bolt, the USP is there and is now supplemented with class leading \ comparable features and quality.

IMHO, Bolt is the only hatch which offers acres of space (a hatch which can seat 5 comfortably), good quality, comfortable ride and class leading features (hopefully coupled with stellar pricing like Zest)- and that, is the USP of Bolt.